By Jamie Hyland, MiningIR
LONDON, UK (MiningIR) — 2 December 2025 — Day 2 at Resourcing Tomorrow 2025 in London shifted firmly into investor territory, with a packed programme built around three converging themes: “Critical Minerals at the Crossroads of Geopolitics,” “Supply Chains for Defence, EVs, and AI,” and “Financing, Investing, and Fast-Tracking Mining Projects.”
Welcoming delegates, Andrew Thake, Divisional Director, Resourcing Tomorrow, reminded the audience why the week matters for capital markets as much as it does for governments and operators. As he told attendees in his opening remarks, “We focus on fostering collaboration, driving innovation, and promoting sustainable practices, making it the must-attend event for anyone invested in the future of mining.” Day 2’s agenda delivered exactly that: hard conversations on geopolitics and capital, grounded by very real project and jurisdiction risk.
Weaponised Supply Chains and “Trump 2.0”
The morning Resourcing Tomorrow Theatre block set the tone. The keynote fireside chat saw Jamie Strauss, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Digbee, sit down with Evy Hambro, BlackRock’s Global Head of Thematic & Sector Investing, to unpack how geopolitics, currency aversion and weaponised material supply chains are reshaping commodity markets. Hambro’s message to institutional and retail investors was straightforward: capital allocation now has to price in policy risk, FX debasement, and strategic stockpiling as aggressively as grade, strip ratio, or all-in sustaining costs.
That thread continued into the leadership panel, “What Does Good Mining Leadership Mean in a Time of Geopolitical Uncertainty?”, featuring Mark Cutifani CBE, Terry Briggs (AngloGold Ashanti), Dino Otranto (Fortescue), Jon Stanton (Weir) and Samantha Campbell (Endeavour Mining), moderated by Rowan Phendler of Granger Reis. Their consensus: leadership today is less about empire-building and more about portfolio agility, community trust and capital discipline.
A subsequent panel on the impact of an increasingly fragmented world drilled into scenario analysis for “Trump 2.0,” tariff regimes, and friendshoring strategies. With perspectives from The Hon. Geoffrey Pyatt, Dr. Gracelin Baskaran (CSIS), Thomas Lauridsen (Government of Greenland) and Emily Olson (Vale Base Metals), moderated by Akshai Fofaria, investors were given a clear message: critical mineral exposure without geopolitical diversification is now a speculative trade, not a core holding.
From Mine to Gigafactory: Battery Metals and Value Chains
In the Leadership Roundtable Theatre, the closed-door session “Battery Metals: From Mine to Market, Sustainably” took those macro themes down into the battery supply chain. Led by Jonathan Leader of Beacon Events, the Chatham House-rule discussion brought together figures such as Graham Lee (Global Battery Alliance), Robert Baylis (EIT InnoEnergy), Gareth Hatch (Rare Earth Industry Association), Tom Fairlie (Cobalt Institute), Richard Taylor (Battery Britain), Dr. Veronique Steukers (Nickel Institute), Francesco Gattiglio (Albemarle), Roland Chavasse (International Lithium Association) and battery pioneer Donald R. Sadoway.
Around the table, the investor takeaway was clear:
- OEMs need security of supply, not just lowest cost.
- Recycling, secondary feed and process innovation are now core parts of the value chain, not ESG “nice-to-haves”.
- Europe and the UK will only stay competitive in EVs and defence if policy, permitting and capital move at the same speed as gigafactory build-out.
Commodity Outlook, Spotlights and New Frontiers
Over in the Investment Theatre, Simon Fickling chaired a Commodity Outlook block anchored by Ronald-Peter Stöferle of Incrementum and his well-known “The Big Long” thesis on gold and monetary debasement. With record-high gold prices in the rear-view mirror and questions about BRICS demand, central-bank buying and silver’s catch-up potential, the discussion fed directly into investors’ thinking around royalty/streaming plays and higher-beta developers. Christopher Berlet followed with a perspective on critical mineral lists and mining ETFs versus active funds.
The subsequent Mining Spotlights showcased a diverse runway of projects—from Quatro Metales in Ecuadorian gold and White Gold in Canada, to Pelangio Exploration (Ingrid Hibbard) in Ghana, Lifezone Metals (Ingo Hofmaier) in Tanzania, Cerro de Pasco Resources (Guy Goulet) in Peru, Mineros S.A. (Ann Wilkinson) in Latin America, and names such as First Class Metals, E3 Lithium, Atlas Salt, American Tungsten (Ali Haji) and Impact Minerals (Dr. Mike Jones). For deal-hunters, it was a live cross-section of where junior and mid-tier capital is actually being deployed across gold, copper, lithium, rare earths and battery metals.
ESG, Circularity and the Geopolitics of Responsibility
Midday in the Resourcing Tomorrow Theatre shifted the lens to risk and resilience with a suite of sessions on ESG, circularity and tailings standards. A keynote panel on “Redefining ESG as a Risk Management Tool for Mining”—featuring Carol Plummer (Agnico Eagle), Edward Johnson (Gemfields), Ben Chalmers (Mining Association of Canada), Hethen Hira (Pan African Resources), Monica Moretto (Pan American Silver) and Gerhard Bolt—reinforced that ESG is now fundamentally about cost of capital and project de-risking, not box-ticking.
This block was complemented by addresses from Vicente Mello (AECOM) on global tailings standards, Han Ilhan (TMK – Uzbekistan Technological Metals Complex) on state-backed critical raw materials strategies, and Dr. Andrew Heap (Geoscience Australia) outlining Australia’s value proposition. A later panel on the circular economy, with voices including Filipe Guimaraes (ArcelorMittal), Bill Cobb (Freeport-McMoRan), Dr. Mathias Schluep and Stephen Hall, pushed the conversation toward hydrogen fleets, advanced recycling and closed-loop systems.
In parallel, the Africa-focused leadership roundtable “Sustainable Growth in Africa: Bridging Resources, Resilience, and Renewables”, led by Veronica Bolton Smith and the Critical Minerals Africa Group, brought ministers and agencies from Ghana, South Africa, Nigeria, Namibia and others into the conversation. The focus: corridors like Lobito, regional power integration, and making critical minerals development bankable and inclusive.
AI, Data and Fast-Tracking Discovery
The afternoon returned to technology and financing. In the Resourcing Tomorrow Theatre, a Future Technologies block explored AI, automation and data-driven decision-making with speakers such as Rasmus Tammia, Mark O’Brien (CITIC Pacific Mining), Farzi Yusufali (StratumAI), Dr. Aurela Shtiza (IMA Europe) and Eng. Ibrahim Qamar (Elsewedy Electric). The message: digital twins, real-time data and predictive analytics are now central to both safety and IRR.
That fed directly into the Leadership Roundtable on “Accelerating Discovery — How AI, Data, and Smart Financing Are Fast-Tracking Mining Projects”, facilitated by Caroline Donally (Sprott) and Kendall Cole-Rae (Fleet Space Technologies), alongside investors such as Matthew Geiger, Bert Koth, Louis Marechal, Gervais Williams, Michael Wrotniak, Philipa Varris, Pim Kalisvaart, Cailey Barker, Patrycja Kula-Verster, Dan Wilton and David Awram. Participants dug into green bonds, sustainability-linked loans, blended finance and impact capital as practical tools to close the funding gap for critical minerals while embedding carbon, biodiversity and circularity metrics into investment decisions.
New Capital, Gold’s Geopolitics and Women in Mining
Late-afternoon sessions zeroed in on junior financing. Panels on UK investors’ perceptions of mining, with Gervais Williams, James Richards and Michael Stiasny, followed by “Urgently Unlocking Mining Finance in Exploration” with Rick Rule, Greg Kuenzel, Tom Attenborough, Olebogeng Sentsho, Mosa Mabuza and others, underlined that while the sector faces a multi-trillion-dollar investment gap, there is ample capital for credible teams, de-risked geology and serious ESG performance.
The gold-focused panel “Golden Horizons”—with Frank Giustra, Ronald-Peter Stöferle, Suliman Al Othaim and Ruth Crowell—connected record prices, de-dollarisation and M&A to a new cycle of consolidation and strategic partnerships in the sector.
The day closed with Women in Mining UK’s panel and drinks reception, featuring Helen Amos, Dawn Brooks and Alison Saxby, reflecting on how a year of political change in the US and UK has reshaped commodity outlooks and policy risk, and what that means for portfolio construction into 2026.
For investors, Day 2 crystallised a simple conclusion: the next wave of returns in mining will flow to those who can sit at the intersection of geopolitically secure critical minerals, resilient supply chains for defence/EVs/AI, and financing models that reward speed and responsibility. Everyone else is going to find capital an increasingly hard crowd to please.
